This very rare practice of the Medicine Buddha and the Four Dakinis is related to Tibetan Medicine and to the tradition of mantra healing. The meditation instruction is a terma given by Guru Rinpoche, and later discovered and mentioned by the Yogi Ju Mipam Rinpoche (1846 – 1912) in his mantra healing text.

For this practice, it is essential to do the visualization and to recite the mantras with faith as well as wishing to help all sentient beings. This is a direct way to be purified from the root of diseases afflicting body, energy and mind and to also permanently prevent disorders. It is done both for healing oneself and for healing others. It can therefore be practiced not only by physicians but by anyone for healing.

“Many People think of the Medicine Buddha as a Kind of Doctor. People believe that if they recite the Medicine Buddha mantra it will help them heal their own illnesses, or, if they are themselves healers, those of others. But what we really need to understand is the point behind why we call this Buddha the Medicine Buddha.

The four medicinal tantras that form the basis of all Tibetan medicine describe an immediate (or proximate) cause of illness, as well as a fundamental (or distant) cause. The fundamental cause of illness is the three poisons, attachment, aversion and delusion. The reason we call the Medicine Buddha by this name is that while physical illnesses can be treated and cured by worldly physicians, the fundamental cause needs some kind of special or even supreme medicine.

It is never said that dharma practice can cure all physical illness or solve all of one’s problems. But while many physical illnesses can be cured and others cannot, we at least recognise physical illness as such. However, we usually fail to recognise our fundamental mental illness, the three poisons of aversion, attachment and delusion, as illnesses. So one function of the Buddha’s teachings is to point out that these are a form of disease.

The Medicine Buddha practice serves two purposes, It helps us to recognise our own illness of mental afflictions and apply appropriate remedies, and it also helps us to recognise these things in others and thus have more love and empathy toward them.

Our three poisons are not only like illnesses, they are also like demons. If we understand our own three poisons and how they affect and afflict us, then when we see others who are gravely ill with the three poisons, making them very angry or very jealous, we will understand how it is they have become that way. They have no control over their three poisons, and this has made them, as it were, a little insane. So another benefit of this practice is that it will make it easier for us to have understanding and therefore to be more loving toward others who are afflicted.”